The Vessel
by WhereOurVoicesSound
Summary: "Again you bring a mortal to Asgard?" He said in his best Odin imitation. It wasn't hard to do, for all their differences he shared the distaste Odin held for humans, although he didn't underestimate them anymore. No, he had been bested by them far too often to think them harmless and weak.
1. Chapter 1

Chains rattled as the mortal was brought forward, led by Thor. Loki, under the guise of Odin, sat on the throne and watched them grow closer with some sense of nostalgia. He had once been in those chains as well.

"Again you bring a mortal to Asgard?" He said in his best Odin imitation. It wasn't hard to do, for all their differences he shared the distaste Odin held for humans, although he didn't underestimate them anymore. No, he had been bested by them far too often to think them harmless and weak.

Thor knelt and Loki suppressed the twitch of mouth that always happened when he saw that. "I ask only that she be kept in the dungeons of Asgard, Allfather."

"Do mortals not have prisons of their own?"

Thor swallowed hard averting his eyes and that's when Loki noticed how close an eye Thor was keeping on his prisoner. "None that can hold her."

Well, that was interesting wasn't it? What kind of prisoner had Thor brought for him?— he wondered and finally looked at the prisoner.

A pretty thing, if a bit plain. Dark hair curling around a small narrow face, her eyes were lowered he couldn't quite see what colour they were and really, she was utterly tiny. Loki wasn't quite given to underestimating people for their size, not when he himself had been so often but there was little more but bones to her and he could not imagine that she had the strength to lift them let alone get them to work for her freedom.

A low hum filled the throne room, coming from the prisoner he realised. Her mouth did not move obviously but he thought there was a slight lilt to the chapped lips now that wasn't there before. It was a light airy sound but soon solidified and grew loud and suddenly Loki froze.

He knew that tune. It had taken him longer to recognise it when she hummed it, her voice was sweet and nothing like the harsh guttural way he had heard it before. It was the tune his chitauri captors had sung while torturing him. He knew that sound well and he could not fathom why this mortal child would know it.

And then she looked up. Poisonous pale blue eyes that glowed unholy looked up at him.

Thanos' eyes. This was no mere mortal.


	2. Chapter 2

The loud thunk of Gungnir on the stones was a welcome sound. Loki wasn't particularly fond of the sceptre, much preferring to use his daggers and magic but Gungnir was brimming with power and it was a comfort on certain occasions.

Like the present occasion which saw him walking to the prisoner's cell, guards flanking him on either side. The further into the dungeons they went the more nervous all the prisoners seemed to be and Loki told the guard to explain.

"She has a strange affect on the prisoners." He said and Loki was surprised and amused to see the Einherjar swallow. "We had to move some of them, she had them all but climbing the walls."

The other guard hesitated but began talking nonetheless and they both were growing more and more tense the closer they got to her cell. "We lost one of the inmates, he threw himself headfirst against the wall repeatedly until he died."

Fascinating.

"I can find my way to her cell myself, you are dismissed." Odin's voice commanded and they both visibly sagged in relief. Loki was surprised when they didn't protest, so far the royal guards had only left his side when he was in his chambers. It had annoyed him for the longest time, being so unable to be alone and now here they were all but running away.

"As you command, Allfather." They said and dropped back, turning on their heel almost immediately and Loki was alone. He passed by his old cell and remembered his mother visiting him with a twinge. A year he'd spent in there, a very long year. But it was nothing compared to the void and with that in mind he walked, quicker now, and soon reached the cell where the girl was held.

She was fast asleep leaning against the golden walls, curled up so she didn't even take up a square foot of space.

In repose she looked young even by the standards of mortals. No lines marked her face and her mouth hung open, moving on occasion as if she was mumbling. He stepped closer and with a start she woke, scrambling back and Loki saw that the sickly blue eyes were brown now. Confusion marked her face before she gasped, her head rolling back in one snappy motion and when her eyes opened again they were the blue he expected, glowing and vicious. He knew what he was dealing with now.

A vessel. Not another one of his 'daughters', a proper vessel, a puppet he was connected to.

"Thanos." He said in Odin's voice and a sickly parody of a grin spread on the small face, all teeth and tending to the right and he knew he was right in the name he addressed her by. There was a familiarity in the way her eyes gleamed at him and he knew, he just knew that Thanos was seeing through her eyes past his illusion and knew who he was really talking to and that it wasn't Odin and was very glad that the surrounding cells were empty and there were no Einherjar for this conversation.

"Little godling." She sneered and stood. "You were told after all, there would be no place left for you to hide in. Wearing Odin's skin will not save you. Not from me."

"Really Thanos? A mortal?" Odin's face twisted, light and jeering but Loki's mind ran.

Something had happened, something that had caused Thanos to take things into his own hands. He never did the dirty work himself, he sent his daughters, the chitauri and the Other to do them for him. His armies laid waste to lands but he only showed up in the end to delight in the screams, to take his pick of worlds.

"Frail little things but useful. Very useful. If their bodies weren't so weak to death I would be tempted to take her in. She rebels but she knows things." The grin widened. "Yes, she knows things."

A happy Thanos was not a good sign. What had gone on in Midgard since he'd last seen it? He had focused on the other Realms and left that plane alone, assured that Thor would come to the 'Allfather' in his time of need but he had been wrong.

It was time to see what his 'son' had been up to all these years on Midgard.


End file.
